Levels of Volatile Organic Compounds in Our Blood (5/10/18 6pm)

Last week, an Erie mother testified at a COGCC meeting on elevated levels of benzene, ethybenzene, and 0-xylene in her six-year-old-son’s blood.

Thursday, East Boulder County United hosts Dr John Hughes in a presentation on the levels of VOCs in human subjects living adjacent to oil and gas drilling.

In 2013, Dr. John Hughes of Aspen Integrative Health tested the blood of 10 Carbondale residents for a range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) associated with gas drilling, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene. He originally planned to re-test some of the individuals later, and see what happened if drilling took place in the Thompson Divide.

Hughes compared Carbondale residents’ results with blood samples from 10 residents of Erie. He found high levels of the carcinogen ethylbenzene in the blood of nine of the 11 Erie subjects; none of the Carbondale subjects showed high levels of ethylbenzene. In an article in the Aspen Times, Dr. Hughes stated: “The EPA has a standard for benzene of 5 parts per billion (ppb), and the highest levels that I found in the Erie patients’ blood was 118.5 ppb.”